There’s no doubt that being an effective leader entails wearing different hats and employing various strategies. Recently in one of our advanced LWC Mentor Coach Circles, a software engineer leader shared that he was struggling to distinguish between when to mentor, train, or coach. He faced rapidly changing priorities and expectations in the organization, and he wanted to make the best decision to help his team develop. What’s the best “hat” to wear when you are in the role of helping others learn and grow? What’s appropriate and when? What do these developmental strategies have in common, and what are the differences? In this blog, we define and distinguish between these approaches.
Mentoring, training, and coaching are all powerful ways for leaders to grow their teams, whether personal, professional, or both. These strategies require leaders who are committed to developing others and are willing to acquire the essential knowledge and expertise needed. Likewise, those being developed must aspire to grow and engage in the process. More importantly, these strategies are most effective when a trusting relationship is the foundation of the experience. When asked what word would describe these experiences, leaders chose words like trust, confidence, challenge, and inspired.
Mentoring
Almost all the leaders I coach or facilitate have been mentored. They define mentoring as a reciprocal, collaborative voluntary relationship that occurs between a more senior, experienced person and less experienced person. Mentoring could last a few months or many years. Mentoring was often a powerful catalyst for their growth. They were encouraged and challenged to take risks they never thought they could and offered sage advice and guidance on how to move toward their goals. It often was a pivotal moment in their career.
Training
The acceleration of change and the sparse availability of experienced applicants have elevated the importance of training. Just when an organization thinks everyone and everything is up to speed, the technology, marketplace, employee, and customer needs shift, sometimes greatly. Witness Artificial Intelligence! It can be ongoing but is often periodic. A primary assumption underlying training is that trainees do not already have the knowledge/skills within them. Whether delivered by a computer or person, an expert(s) creates the content to develop skills and knowledge related to specific competencies vital to getting results.
Coaching
Unlike mentoring and training, the coach approach is founded on the belief that many of the answers and capabilities are already within a person or team being coached. Coaching in our Leaders Who Coach programs is defined as “a helping relationship with a developmental focus played out in conversations, and stimulates the person or group being coached to greater awareness, deeper and broader thought, and wiser decisions and actions.” The coach enters the conversation purposely and humbly “not knowing,”. The coach relies on the goals, knowledge, and strategies to be discovered by the person or team they are coaching. Coaches use an evidenced-based process to ask powerful questions and listen actively. They follow a roadmap to generate awareness, possibilities, and self-accountability that moves others forward. Moreover, they maintain a presence in the coaching space that is curious and accepting. The versatility of coaching is countless- “coachable moments” can happen each day, for just a few minutes, leaders can coach their peers, in their regular 121s, or during team meetings.
Leaders should use mentoring, training, and coaching to continuously develop their people and teams. If you want to be competitive and retain employees, these strategies are essential. While you can use coaching when you mentor and train, you must leave behind your “expert” hat to effectively coach others. Coaching is the only leadership approach that is designed to “equip people to develop themselves.” As a leader, when you coach you strengthen relationships, increase collaboration, and develop the confidence in others to learn and grow. Ultimately, coaching is about focusing on the people, not the problem. By doing so, you empower individual and teams to discover and actualize their potential.
